Since when does Kofi Annan hold a seat on the UNSC?
And since when does he define what means are legal and illegal when the UNSC resolution UNSC 678, cited in UNSC 1441, clearly states "all necessary means".
He could call an immoral, or unethical, decision to use military force. But he clearly has no right to declare it illegal..
But he probably doesn't understand the concept of what's legal or illegal. After all, his son and brother were financially benefitting off of the corruption of the oil for food scandal.
timesonline.co.uk
Kojo Annan, the secretary-general’s son who was involved with several companies seeking to profit from the programme, has been criticised and remains under investigation.
Inquiries into Kobina are at an early stage and he has not been interviewed.
However, investigators are understood to suspect that Michael Wilson, an African businessman, and Kobina had a business relationship at the time of the scandal.
A source close to the investigation said: “We believe Kobina Annan may be involved with Michael Wilson and Kojo Annan. We know there is a connection between Kobina and Wilson.”
Furthermore, his administration oversaw the shredding of documents from 3 years worth of UN oil for food files.
What that legal?
This latest report dramatically adds to the growing picture of mismanagement, incompetence, and unaccountability at the United Nations, a world body in deep crisis and in serious need of reform. And the report is not, as Annan has claimed, in any way a vindication for him or the UN. As lead IIC investigator Mark Pieth stated, “We did not exonerate Kofi Annan. We should not brush this off. A certain mea culpa would have been appropriate.”[3]
The Interim Report raises a number of important issues that should be of major concern to congressional investigators.
Document Shredding
The most significant finding in the Volcker Report is the revelation that Kofi Annan’s then Chief of Staff, Iqbal Riza, authorized the shredding between April and December 2004 of thousands of UN documents. Among these documents were the entire UN Chef de Cabinet chronological files for the years 1997, 1998, and 1999, many of which related to the Oil-for-Food Program.
Riza approved this destruction just ten days after he had personally written to the heads of nine UN-related agencies that administered the Oil for-Food Program in Northern Iraq, requesting that they “take all necessary steps to collect, preserve and secure all files, records and documents… relating to the Oil-for-Food Programme.”[4] The destruction continued for more than seven months after the Secretary General’s June 1, 2004, order to UN staff members “not to destroy or remove any documents related to the Oil-for-Food programme that are in their possession or under their control, and to not instruct or allow anyone else to destroy or remove such documents.”[5]
Significantly, Kofi Annan announced the retirement of Mr. Riza on January 15, 2005, exactly the same day that Riza notified the Volcker Committee that he had destroyed the documents.[6] Riza was immediately replaced by UNDP chief Mark Malloch Brown.
Riza was Chief of Staff from 1997 to 2004, almost the entire period of the Oil-for-Food Program’s operation, and would undoubtedly possess an intricate knowledge of the UN’s management of it. He was a long-time colleague of Kofi Annan and served as Annan’s deputy in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations from 1993 to 1996.
heritage.org
The the procurement officer, Alexander Yakolov, who granted the contract to Cotecna, the firm that Annan's son worked for, is under criminal investigation for having taken bribes. Kofi Annan's office has been asked waived his diplomatic immunity so that criminal procedings can begin.
iic-offp.org
iic-offp.org
Kofi Annan lied (claimed he didn't recall) about a meeting with a Cotecna Chairman, Elie Massey. But then the investigators pulled data off a computer hard-drive that revealed he had had a private meeting with Elie Massey in 1997, set up by his son, Kojo Annan.
iic-offp.org
Then it was revealed that he'd had ANOTHER private meeting with Massey.
Now, considering that HE KNEW his son was working for Cotecna as a consultant, is nearly LUDICROUS to believe that he didn't remember these two meetings, let alone not understand the connection to his son.
The release this week of a memorandum written by a high-ranking official with the Oil-for-Food contractor Cotecna is deeply embarrassing to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and may herald the end of his tenure of office. The memorandum calls into question Annan’s central claim that he was unaware of Cotecna’s bid for a lucrative U.N. Oil-for-Food contract in 1998.[1] The memo indicates not only that Annan was personally aware of Cotecna’s bid, but also that he actively intervened on behalf of the company, which employed his son Kojo from 1995 to 1998.[2]
This new, highly damaging evidence in the Oil-for-Food scandal reinforces the need for change in the leadership of the United Nations. Annan’s position as Secretary-General has become increasingly untenable, and these latest revelations further undermine both his own credibility as well as that of the U.N.
The Cotecna memorandum is now being reviewed by the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC) headed by Paul Volcker, whose investigators are reportedly “urgently reviewing fresh evidence.”[3] The Volcker Committee will have to reassess its earlier conclusion that it found “no evidence that the selection of Cotecna in 1998 was subject to any affirmative or improper influence of the Secretary General in the bidding or selection process.”[4]......
We had brief discussions with the SG and his entourage. Their collective advice was that we should respond as best as we could to the Q&A session of the 1-12-98 (December 1, 1998) and that we could count on their support.[6]
This email clearly gives the impression that Kofi Annan (“SG”) and his staff personally provided assurances to Mr. Wilson that Cotecna’s bid would receive their backing. It ties Annan to the awarding of the Cotecna contract—a role that he has, until now, vociferously denied.
This memorandum was immediately followed by a second email, marked “Confidential” and sent just two minutes later, that details the December 1 meeting. According to the second email, Cotecna had been invited to a “Q&A session” in New York as one of three short-listed candidates in the bidding process for the U.N. contract to oversee the import of humanitarian goods into Iraq under the Oil-for-Food Program.
heritage.org
So yeah.. it's no wonder that Kofi Annan thought the war was "illegal".. Criminals trying to cover the tracks of their crimes would definitely think it was illegal to use war to uncover the corruption.
I'm sure Kofi Annan, considering that none of the activities of he and his son committed would have been uncovered had the Iraq war not revealed the oil-for food scandal, believes that the evidence being ammassed against him is "fruit from a poison tree":
fruit of the poisonous tree
n. in criminal law, the doctrine that evidence discovered due to information found through illegal search or other unconstitutional means (such as a forced confession) may not be introduced by a prosecutor. The theory is that the tree (original illegal evidence) is poisoned and thus taints what grows from it. For example, as part of a coerced admission made without giving a prime suspect the so-called "Miranda warnings" (statement of rights, including the right to remain silent and what he/she says will be used against them), the suspect tells the police the location of stolen property. Since the admission cannot be introduced as evidence in trial, neither can the stolen property.
See also: Miranda warning
dictionary.law.com
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